The IAAF Council today approved the Qualifying standards for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.

While the performance standards themselves are similar to those used for the 2017 World Championships, Doha 2019 will witness two notable differences:

Target numbers have been introduced for the road events and 10,000m races – 100 for marathons, 60 for the 20km race walks, 50 for the men’s 50km race walk and 30 for the women’s, and 27 for the 10,000m

There will also be an increase in the number of teams qualified from the IAAF World Relays from eight to 10 in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, for a total of 16 entries. For the 4x400m mixed relay, which will be contested for the first time, 12 teams will qualify from the IAAF World Relays in Yokohama.

Council Meeting summary

At a two-day meeting in Monaco, Council also made the following decisions:

During this morning’s session, Council awarded the 2023 IAAF World Championships to the Hungarian capital Budapest. Part of the organising committee’s bid includes the construction of a new stadium, built along the east bank of the Danube River, which will later serve primarily as an athletics facility.

Budapest is the first IAAF World Championships host to be named under the new bidding process announced in February 2017 through which the IAAF assesses its strategic goals for growing the sport, targeting cities from countries and regions which will best assist in delivery of those aims.

Council also accepted the Russia Taskforce’s recommendation not to reinstate RusAF until the following two conditions have been met in full: confirmation that the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has been given data and access to the samples that it needs to determine which of the Russian athletes in the LIMS database have a case to answer for breach of the IAAF anti-doping rule and that RusAF pays all the costs incurred in the work of the taskforce.

Council also voted to permit national teams, for the first time, to display the logo of a national sponsor on their kit for the IAAF World Athletics Championships (WCH) at the Doha 2019 World Championships.

On Monday (3), the IAAF announced the appointment of Jon Ridgeon, a former international athlete and businessman, as its new CEO. Ridgeon, 51, will take up his new role in March 2019.